@kriswright

Gadget/Monterrey Jack Rule 34 material is definitely good to adult eyes.

En serio, my Disney Adventure rankings are thuswise:

1. Duck Tales
2. Tale Spin
3. Darkwing Duck
4. Gummi Bears
5. Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers
6. Goof Troop

Duck Tales is solidly in #1 and there's a big gap between Tale Spin and Darkwing Duck in my mind. Darkwing had some really stellar episodes but just didn't deliver as consistently as the two above it. Honestly, it's pretty close between that and Gummi Bears, which had some interesting overarching plot lines. Goof Troop is a distant last.

Having watched some of these shows in more recent times, I find they don't really satisfy for an adult outside of tapping into nostalgia, but that's A-OK. These were kids shows through and through. The idea that in order to be truly great a kids show or movie has to also resonate with adults has always annoyed me. Just because adults love Pixar movies doesn't make them better kids movies than Ben 10 or whatever, it just means that adults are the ones who control the narrative and award shows, etc. And as a kid, I knew that nothing on TV came close to Duck Tales for inspiring my sense of adventure.

@Jargon

I haven't seen most of these as an adult, so my ranking goes strictly on how I encountered them as a child. (I may revisit a few of them in preparation for Evangeline's future TV watchings, though, and might come back and rank them again.)

As a kid, I'd have ranked them:

DuckTales
Chip and Dales Rescue Rangers
Darkwing Duck
Gummi Bears
Tale Spin

And then Goof Troop would go unranked, as it came out too late in the game for me to have had any experience with. I've seen about two episodes while in my early 20s and I wasn't particularly impressed. But I knew kids a few years younger than me that really liked it, so I'll cut it some slack.

That's not a burial of Tale Spin, by the way. I liked all these shows. But if I recall correctly, TaleSpin came out a bit later, so I was a tiny bit older when I was watching that one.

I'll completely sign on with your final paragraph though, Jargs. What I liked about DuckTales was that sense of globe-trotting adventure and the mutual love and respect of the McDuck extended family. Also - and this isn't brought up very often - DuckTales was one of the rare after-school children's shows during that period that wasn't trying to sell toys.

Also, to the point about shows being for adults - I never understood how "kids shows adults can appreciate" came to mean "kids shows with hidden dick jokes that a smart 6 year old can probably understand". That Shrekization of kids media is one of the more depressing developments over the last 20 years.

@kriswright

I don't think my complaints were stupid. These weren't the voices I grew up with, you know. "Oncle Picsou" had a different voice, different expressions. So the cutscenes and banter possibly made this remake feel less like playing an episode, to me. I wouldn't expect many here to share that exact same experience, but you shouldn't expect everyone to have had your childhood either.

I have really fond memories of this game, looking back to last year. I had such a blast playing this and Toki Tori 2 back to back. It's weird to have nostalgia over games I played a year ago, but now I really get in the mood to play something like this, or a short(ish) indie game that I can finish in a weekend during the wintertime.

I thought the voices all felt super authentic to the show, at least from the perspective of a kid growing up outside of Philadelphia in the early 90s. It was great hearing Launchpad again. I know there were a couple different voices of Scrooge, but they all sound pretty similar to me. The banter felt very much like what I'd expect from the show. I wished it were a tad shorter (because remember, those old episodes were all like 20 minutes long, so I'm sure the dialogue was more brief and less drawn out).

I'd love to see Wayforward or some other team get to tackle Rescue Rangers. I know it's not considered as high quality game, but it could be a fun co-op experience. I probably played that game more as a kid because of the 2 player mode. That, and throwing things is always fun.

@Guillaume

If DuckTales taught me anything, it's that people from other countries exist merely so I can show up in their town and talk them out of their gold.

Seriously, I hope you're not offended by comments. I can't imagine why you'd think my comments were directed at you. If you're upset at my assumption that other countries got the English version of DuckTales, if they got it at all, that's a very specific and very minute thing to be offended by. I don't know much about the worldwide syndication of American-produced 80s kids shows.

If it's any consolation, I'd be happy for you if The Mysterious Cities of Gold had French voice acting.

Edit: What was with the 80s and kids shows about searching for gold?

Rankings:

Darkwing Duck
Everything else

If I didn't care for or have nostalgia for DuckTales it would still be a fun and unique little platformer. For the current sale price of ~$6 it would have been a worthwhile purchase. I would not have wanted to spend more than $10-15 without the DT nostalgia. Since I enjoy the nostalgic affect here I would have spent $30+ for the game if I needed.

@kriswright Thanks for the detailed response mate. I'm not opposed to caring, I just don't think I would since cartoons don't interest me anymore. I can't even remember whether or not I've watched anything DuckTales when I was younger.

My problems with NES games aren't necessarily because of being too simple, that depends on the type of game and the degree of simplicity. Sometimes simple is better. It's more that controls and physics have come a long way since then, so it makes it tougher to deal with stiff or laggy control and wonky physics. If the mechanics of the game still feel solid and modern (enough), then the relative simplicity probably wouldn't be much of an issue.

I would also want the physical version which would probably be tougher to find than the download version for a cheaper price. There aren't very many games for Wii U so I have to consider all my options.

@kriswright

I'm not offended Kris. I was just sharing one reason why one could have a problem with the added cutscenes. In hindsight, it was probably not the most convincing one.

Essentially, as Pogue already pointed out, the writing and the pacing of the dialogue is not up to par with the original show's, so that's one more barrier to enjoying these new cutscenes.

I think the "if the original developers could have done them, they would have" is weak. Beyond the fact that we just can't know that, I just don't believe that increased fidelity or better production values necessarily make for a better product.

I like to take Final Fantasy as an example. The series has had lengthy cutscenes and huge casts of characters at least since IV. That particular entry has two child characters whom I believe are probably well-liked. Then there's Final Fantasy XIII's Vanille and Hope who are insufferable, especially Vanille, with her stupid maneurism and her very anime-ish moans and what have you. In all likelihood Vanille is probably a better-written character and Porom and Polom, yet I find her really obnoxious, despite the fact that Porom and Polom were meant to be cocky and annoying. Why? Because Vanille gives me plenty to be annoyed by, while FFIV let my mind fill the blanks and create characters that I don't find dreadfully obnoxious.

If the FFIV makers could have anime'd up their game, would they have? Probably. But it wouldn't have made for a better experience for everyone.

@Guillaume

I understand your perspective and would agree, in general. But I think DuckTales is an exception because a) It's specifically based on characters and situations that already existed in a TV show, b) the original games greatness partly derives from how well it uses those characters and situations, and c) apart from a few minor moments (talking about the coins in the Amazon, perhaps) I don't feel the extra cutscenes really slow the game down much.

Put it another way: Which game feels more like an episode of DuckTales (ok ok, from an English speaker's point of view)? I think it's Remastered, all the way. And, to me, that's an accomplishment worth applauding, at least in this specific case.

Jargon said:

En serio, my Disney Adventure rankings are thuswise:

1. Duck Tales
2. Tale Spin
3. Darkwing Duck
4. Gummi Bears
5. Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers
6. Goof Troop

.

Man, those old Disney cartoons were good times. I was poking around Wikipedia on the weekend researching the old children's shows we used to have here back in the late 80's/early 90's. Came across 'Saturday Disney' which is apparently still going strong. Hours of cartoony goodness on a Saturday morning. But damn the shows that they have now are garbage. Is it just because I'm a cynical adult now, or are kids being fed trash these days? None of what's on the lineup nowadays seems to hold a candle to the likes of Ducktales, Gummi Bears and Tale Spin.

@Shadowlink

I called it Disney Adventure, but I meant to say Disney Afternoon. That was after school for me and man was it a good time. Looking at the wikipedia page, I'm reminded of Bonkers. What a weird show that was. And Gargoyles, which was pretty awesome.

Thought I'd boot this rather than create a new thread. Anyone watch the new DuckTales? I thought it wasn't nearly as strong an introduction as the original series got, but it was generally pretty good. I have some complaints, but nothing earth-shaking. Overall I'm just glad to see more DuckTales.

I thought it was surprisingly good, but it can't hold a candle to the original as far as I'm concerned, and it still kind of irks me that it's called DuckTales. But I suppose much of that is my nostalgia and unhealthy obsession with Fenton Crackshell speaking.

Kind of disappointed in the visual style and animation to be honest. The retro approach is fine and all, but it feels like a thinly veiled excuse to use this janky style that so many other modern animated series seem to use. They didn't exactly nail Donald Duck's slapstick either.

The worst part in my opinion is Huey, Dewey and Louie. I can understand the desire to give them all distinct personalities and build upon that for the drama, but I feel a big part of them in the past (in both comics and original DuckTales) is that they actually are kind of hard to tell apart. They function like one single character in many instances, and even find that they themselves have a hard time telling who is who to the point that they sometimes aren't even sure of their own names. Also felt like some of the dialogue gags had been a better fit for something along the lines of Scrubs or Community. Haven't really analyzed why I think like I do, so I probably describe my grievances quite badly.

But, on the positive side, I think Scrooge was good, Launchpad was good, the new Webby was good, and the fact that I don't let my general grumpiness towards the whole reboot idea keep me from watching the whole show and enjoying it is kind of a big deal. To me.

@r_hjort

No, not at all. You and I are on almost the exact same page. I wrote a long post about this on another website making the exact same point about Huey, Dewey and Louie - that they're a single, hydra-like character. Splitting them up is actually diminishing what's special about them. I feel there's some simplistic mathematics going on where people think giving them distinct personalities somehow automatically makes them better/more complex. Which is crazy, as it ignores like 80 years of their characterization in beloved cartoons and comics. It's trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist.

Quack Pack made the same mistake, assigning them boring stock personalities (the Brain!, The Jock!, The Wiseguy!). So far this doesn't seem quite as bad as that. But there is a basic point, here: Change these guys up too much and you might as well call them Alvin, Simon and Theodore.

So I'm skeptical about that, more than anything else.

I don't love the art style, personally, but I do think it fits in with modern cartoons like Gravity Falls and Steven Universe. It's not a dealbreaker for me, but it's a shame that Disney has been running away from their Disney style, lately. The original DuckTales would look so gorgeous in widescreen HD.

Quick note: David Tennant is ok as Scrooge. Someone was going to have to do it, so it might as well be him. But damned if I don't miss Alan Young. I'm kinda glad that I stuck up for the voice acting in DuckTales Remastered earlier in this thread, now that both Alan Young and June Foray have passed on. It was great to get to hear them voice their iconic characters one last time.

Tennant may end up playing Scrooge for the next 40 years, becoming beloved in his own right. Who knows? But if he does, I want to go on record now saying that, at best, he gets to aspire to be the Christopher Lee Dracula to Alan Young's Bela Legosi. For my money there's only room for one all-time, iconic Scrooge. And that's Alan Young.

@kriswright
Glad I'm in good company!

I was actually talking about Gravity Falls and the like without mentioning them, so it's nice to be backed up on that too. I don't really mind their style when it's theirs, but like you say I think Disney's neglecting their own style. Even though the new backgrounds look sort of similar to old comic books in the way they've got parts that aren't colored in with very high precision, and have certain colours done through raster (Is that even what that dot technique is called in English? Too lazy to google) I don't think it's very true to old Disney comic books. Plus, the 80's DuckTales had beautifully realized backgrounds, and fluid animation for the most part.

I thought Tennant did quite well, but I didn't grow up with Alan Young's Scrooge, so to me this is pretty much the first English speaking Scrooge I've experienced. The guy who dubbed him in Swedish in the 80's was terrific (and based his performance on Alan Young, no doubt). Most of the people who lend their voices to animation around here are just random celebreties and/or their kids, but John Harryson who did the voice for Scrooge was a real actor, and treated the role as any other, with great results.

@r_hjort

Yeah. Gui got on to me for being a bit America-centric on DuckTales. I can't help it, though. I sometimes forget what a huge deal Uncle Scrooge comics are worldwide. So I'll say my comments are for English language versions only. But, seriously, check out Alan Young's voice characterization for Scrooge sometime. He's really first-rate.

@kriswright
I didn't mean to criticize you for your preference or anything, I just tried to explain that I can't really compare Tennant to his predecessor ( also couldn't resist giving John Harryson some extra love for his portrayal of Scrooge). I've heard some of Alan Young's VA in DuckTales Remastered (haven't bought it yet, just watched gameplay vids), and I think that might be a good place for me to start since I wouldn't have the old lines in Swedish on repeat in the back of my head.

Speaking of of Swedish: To my surprise, Launchpad did really speak Swedish as uncle Hampus or whatever it was. Not very well, but I could make out most of what he was saying. Gave me a good little chuckle.

@kriswright

I find something about the image of you and Tbun tuning into the Disney Channel for Ducktales and Girl Meets World, respectively, to be very amusing. Bringing back old fans is definitely part of the intent with those new shows, but it's interesting nonetheless. Particularly Tbun, since I knew him as the BitF guy years before joining here.

Maybe it's because I see most of Disney Channel's shows to be so disposable. So seeing two people I consider to have good taste and artistic perspective take them seriously creates this humorous dissonance. This is an exaggeration, but it'd be like finding out Miyamoto or Tarantino eagerly awaits a new episode of Big Bang Theory or something.